Four hours before he died on December 1, Dev Anand had instructed his friend and aide Mohan Churiwala to send a bouquet of flowers to Dilip Kumar on his 89th birthday. “A few days after Dev Sahab went to London, Saira Banuji (Dilip Kumar’s wife) had invited him to Dilip Sahab’s 89th birthday party,” Churiwala said.

“When I spoke to Dev Sahab that evening of December 1, he said that if he came back in time he would attend the party, and if he got held back for some reason, I should personally go and deliver a bouquet of flowers to Dilip Sahab on his big day.” But 10 days later, as Dilip Kumar celebrated his birthday today, the flowers from Dev Anand were not among the hundreds of bouquets that flooded his Pali Hill home.

“I ordered 89 roses as instructed by Dev Sahab but could not deliver them. I tried calling Sairaji a million times since Friday. But she did not take my call. His staff too stalled me,” Churiwala said. Dev Anand was just a year younger than Dilip Kumar. They were billed as rivals in their heyday but their similar roots as immigrants from Pakistan had kept them connected at a social level.

Later, when they ceased being matinee idols, Dev Anand got engrossed in filmmaking while Dilip Kumar withdrew from the limelight because of health issues. Over the years, however, their relationship had its fair share of ups and downs. Dev Anand’s closeness to Dilip Kumar’s estranged brother Ehsan Khan was one among many of the spoken and unspoken differences between the two legends.

Death, though, often renders meaningless the petty rifts of life. After Dev Anand’s death, a grieving Dilip Kumar had decided to cancel his birthday celebrations. But friends and family had insisted on the bash, which was to be attended by the who’s who of Bollywood, and the actor had relented. Bollywood’s biggest stars attended the birthday-eve party that started last night and ended this morning. From Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan to Priyanka Chopra, Dimple Kapadia and Mahesh Bhatt, the guest list was a veritable galaxy.

In the past few years, Dev Anand would often rue how he was not allowed to speak to his old friend Yusuf (Dilip Kumar’s real name) who lived just 500 yards away. “When I call him, he never takes my calls. His staff tell me he is busy,” he would often complain. Yet Dev Anand had sent a message to Saira Banu last year saying he would want his onetime matinee rival and dear friend to release his autobiography.

“I had called Saira to ask if Yusuf would release Romancing With Life. She said she would call back but never did,” Dev Anand had told The Telegraph at the premiere of the re-launch of the coloured version of his classic flick Hum Dono. “I have no hard feelings. I guess he was unwell. But it hurt that there was not even a courtesy call back from her.” He later recounted this rejection to many journalists. When word eventually reached Saira Banu, she sought to make amends by inviting Dev Anand to Dilip Kumar’s 89th birthday bash.